Nets Players Hype Up New ‘Fast, Confident’ Coaching Approach From Jordi Fernandez

First-year Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez may have had an underwhelming summer while guiding Team Canada in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games (they failed to medal), but he’s still impressing his future players with some of the changes he’s already implemented.

Per Brian Lewis of The New York Post, Fernandez hopes to employ a more run-and-gun, fastbreak approach in 2024-25. And, to be fair, Fernandez did help Team Canada beat Team USA for bronze at the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

Second-year Nets power forward Jalen Wilson, selected with the No. 51 pick out of Kansas, unpacked Fernandez’s approach.

“I think the main part is playing fast, playing confident,” the 6-foot-8 big man reflected. “Not being out there settling and not being unsure of anything. But everything at full speed and understanding that you’ve got to attack in everything … whether it’s shooting, dribbling, finding the open teammate, running down the floor sprinting to the corner, those different things.”

Across 43 healthy bouts last season (three starts), Wilson averaged 5.0 points on .425/.324/.826 shooting splits, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.0 assists a night. In a faster-paced offseason, he has the chance to boost that output. More minutes will help, too.

Following the team’s blockbuster trade of All-Defensive Team small forward Mikal Bridges to the neighboring New York Knicks, Brooklyn signaled that it was embracing a tank.

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The Nets’ youth movement should yield more run for Wilson, fourth-year shooting guard Cam Thomas, fourth-year center/power Day’Ron Sharpe, and second-year forward Noah Clowney.

“We want to play fast, want to play hard,” Clowney noted. “We want to be disruptive. We know we’ve got to be a great defensive team if we want any shot at winning games, and that’s just the reality of it. Nobody’s got to sugarcoat that for us. We understand that.”

The 6-foot-10 big man, selected with the No. 21 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft out of Alabama, appeared in 23 contests for Brooklyn, averaging 5.8 points on .538/.364/.700 shooting splits, 3.5 rebounds, and 0.8 dimes a night. He impressed at the G League level, however, with the Nets’ NBAGL affiliate, the Long Island Nets. Clowney averaged 17.5 points on a .500/.339/.772 slash line, 7.9 boards, 2.1 dishes, 1.7 blocks, and 0.6 swipes per regular season clash, in 19 appearances (all starts).

After finishing 32-50 and missing the playoffs last season under former head coach Jacque Vaughn and his interim replacement, Kevin Ollie, it became quite clear that the Nets weren’t good enough, even with Bridges, to compete for the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.